Between running the restaurant, working on menus for upcoming events at the inn, taking care of her mom and the new set of responsibilities she’d taken on with the holiday festival, the truth was Angi should be offering to pay Gabe babysitting money for keeping her son occupied.

Maybe it was guilt or the uneasy sense that she owed him something that led her to enter the flower shop just before noon on Friday. Il Rigatone was crowded with the usual lunch regulars, so it wasn’t a big deal for her to sneak away for a few minutes, much like her son did after school.

“Be with you in a minute,” the deep, familiar voice called out, and Angi had a few seconds to absorb the changes to the shop since her previous visit.

Instead of the dingy and dismal shelves filled with decaying flowers, the space had been transformed into something almost cheery. It was sparse and in need of some big-time design help, but the shop was clean.

“Can I help... It’s you.”

She whirled to find Gabe staring at her from where he stood in the doorway to the back room.

“Hey.” She gestured around the store’s interior, nearly knocking over a potted plant from one shelf in her fit of nervous energy. Get a grip, she commanded herself.

There was something about the weight of his unreadable gaze on her that made butterflies take flight across her middle.

“It looks great in here,” she said on a rush of breath. “Way better. I mean, more like a shop where someone would like to...well...shop. Or at least they’d want to buy the flowers instead of sending their old ones here to die. You know what I mean. Do you know what I mean?”

“That was a lot of words,” he said slowly. “A few of them even sounded like a compliment. Andrew can take most of the credit. The kid works his butt off for me. He’s also got ideas about ordering more merchandise.”

“He does?” Angi didn’t bother to hide her surprise.

“He’s been talking to some girl in his class whose aunt owns a gift shop down along the Outer Banks. She’s giving him the scoop, and he’s relaying it along to me.”

“I thought you didn’t want him here.”

“Told you, I changed my mind.”

“Because it bothers me?”

“Not exactly, but that’s a side benefit.” He took a step closer to her, rubbing a hand over his stubbled jaw.

She would not react to that sound. A shiver passed through her anyway.

“Is that why you’re here? To command me to stay away from your kid? Because he’s the one who sought me out, not the other way around.”

“Yeah, I just can’t figure out why,” Angi murmured more to herself than to Gabe. “I brought you lunch.” She held out the white paper bag. “It’s a meatball sub. The Friday special.”

He took it from her and peeked inside. “Like your dad used to bring to Gran.”